This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 11-310163, filed Oct. 29, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a specimen processing system for subjecting a specimen such as blood to a centrifugal process, a dispense process and the like.
When an operator extracts serum from collected blood, he or she generally centrifuges a master specimen constituted of both blood and a silicon separating agent injected into a test tube using a centrifugal unit. In the centrifugal process, a blood clot whose specific gravity is relatively high is separated below the separating agent, and serum whose specific gravity is relatively low is separated above the separating agent.
The serum so obtained is dispensed in a dispensing unit. This dispense process is generally performed as follows. The serum is absorbed and extracted from the test tube through an air suction nozzle having a disposable dispensing TIP at the tip thereof, and the extracted serum is separately injected into a plurality of slave specimen containers (such as test tubes), with the result that a plurality of slave specimens can be obtained.
There is a case where soft fiber materials such as a so-called fibrin are caused in a serum layer of a master specimen which has been centrifuged. If the fibrin is mixed in the serum layer, it is likely to be adhered to the tip of the dispensing TIP when the dispense process is executed by the dispensing unit. Thus, an opening of the tip of the dispense TIP is clogged or the fibrin is mixed into the slave specimens, with the result that the dispense process is not performed normally or a so-called dispense error occurs.
Conventionally, an operator has taken the following measures against the above-described dispense error. When a dispense error is caused by a fibrin, an operator intermits the dispense process and takes out a test tube including a specimen causing the dispense error. He or she injects beads for decomposing the fibrin into the test tube and carries them to the centrifugal unit by hand. The operator centrifuges the carried specimen again and restarts the dispense process.
In the conventional specimen processing system described above, an operator manually performed a series of operations of taking out a specimen causing a dispense error, injecting beads into the specimen, and centrifuging the specimen again. It was therefore difficult for the operator to carry out the operations quickly and exactly. Moreover, the intermittence of the dispense process stopped the flow of the specimen processing operation and decreased the operation efficiency.
The object of the present invention is to provide a specimen processing system having the following advantages:
1) When a dispense error is caused due to fibrin in a dispense process, the specimen is automatically centrifuged again and no special operator""s manual operation is required. The specimen can thus quickly and exactly be centrifuged again; and
2) When a specimen in which a dispense error has occurred is centrifuged again, the dispense processing need not be intermitted, so that there is no fear that the flow of the specimen processing will be stopped.
To attain the above object, the specimen processing system according to the present invention is characterized chiefly by the following structure. The other characteristic structures will be clarified in the Detailed Description of the Invention.
The specimen processing system of the present invention, for centrifuging a specimen such as blood and then dispensing the specimen, comprises a dispense error specimen removing unit for removing a specimen in which a dispense error has been caused due to a fibrin in a dispense process, a feedback unit for injecting fibrin-decomposing beads into the specimen removed by the dispense error specimen removing unit and feeding the specimen back to a centrifuge process, and a reprocess control unit for causing the specimen fed back to the centrifuge process by the feedback unit to be centrifuged again.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.